Flag pledge moves ahead

Published 5:00 am Monday, April 15, 2013

SALEM — With democracy comes divisiveness, Jeff Reardon, a Democratic lawmaker from Portland, said in a House Education Committee on Friday, but reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is one time “people can come together and remember what this nation is about.”

Reardon’s remarks came as the House committee unanimously passed House Bill 3014, which would require a U.S. flag in every public school classroom and mandate time in the day be reserved to recite the pledge.

The bill is sponsored by Republican lawmaker Sal Esquivel, who said the flag represents “everything this country has been and everything it will be.”

Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, chairwoman of the House Education Committee, said it has bipartisan support.

“I pledge allegiance to this bill,” Gelser said before the hearing.

The bill would not force students to recite the pledge.

“I hope our youngest students are given instruction in addition to the pledge, so it isn’t just a rote statement,” said David Gomberg, D-Otis, during the committee hearing.

Jackie LaFrenz, the administrator at Powell Butte Community Charter School, said the flag is flown at her school, and children often begin their day with the ritual. The proposed legislation would require charter schools to also have a flag. Currently the law does not include them.

“I feel like it’s a historic part of our country,” she said.

But, LaFrenz said, reciting the pledge at times becomes rote.

“Do I feel like kids understand all the words behind it anymore? No. … Some do. Some don’t, and the ones that do, that comes from their families.”

Esquivel, of Medford, said he felt inspired to push the legislation when he heard a local charter school didn’t recite the pledge nor have a flag.

Becky Straus, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said she was surprised the bill was gaining any traction. The ACLU, she said, has a long-standing concern with the pledge being recited in school because of the religious implications; this bill exacerbates the concern.

“It’s really a student and staff member’s legal right to express themselves by not participating in the pledge,” she said.

The legislation would change the law from mandating the pledge be led by a staff person weekly to daily.

“This puts students in an uncomfortable position where they are more frequently now making themselves ‘the other’ at a very impressionable age,” she said.

Esquivel said after advocating on behalf of the legislation, he learned his 10-year-old grandson, who attends a charter school in Medford, didn’t know the words.

That is about to change.

“Oh, he’ll learn,” Esquivel said.

House Bill 3014

What it does: Requires a flag in every classroom and time every day to recite the pledge.

What’s next: The bill now goes to the House floor for a vote and then on to the Senate.

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